Welcome to the CL Behind the Scenes blog, where Owner/Operator Catherine shares her stories on business ownership, the operations of the brand in the past month, and what we can look forward to in the next few weeks from CL.
Before I started CL Equestrian Apparel, one of the goals I had for it was to be a vendor at the big "A" shows in the area. After multiple show cancellations due to the pandemic, we finally were able to live this dream starting mid-season in 2021. Fast forward almost a year, and our 2022 show season kicked off. We started the season strong, with 2 back-to-back horse shows at Wesley Clover Parks in Ottawa. After 2 years without the international Ottawa Dressage Festival (and being on the vendors list for 2021 before it got cancelled), the show was finally held and we were able to attend our first dressage show. After meeting a bunch of new customers, and seeing some old ones, we took a break for a day before flipping over the trailer for the next show. The Ottawa Welcome, a national "A" show, was held the next week, and we quickly removed the dressage stuff, brought in the hunter and jumper stuff, and were ready to sell the same day.
As a full-time student with a part-time job, my schedule is hard to organize, but my absolute favourite part of horse show vending is getting to meet our amazing customers. Thanks to our volunteers, Justine and Sophie, we are able to be open the entire duration of the shows we attend, even when I can't be there, and I'm incredibly grateful to them for their help. At our May shows, all three of us met customers from many different provinces and even countries, both new customers and returning ones, young and adult. It was fantastic to see some familiar faces, and get to know some new ones as well, and we're looking forward to the rest of the vending season! Didn't get to come see us? We'll be back for the Ottawa Summer Tournaments, July 5th to 17th.
As for what else we've been up to, we've been busy finalizing the Fall Collection, Holiday Edit, and putting the finishing touches on products for the Eq Edit, our next edit coming in July. We also have a few products we need released ASAP so we can share the love, and new June Arrivals are launching next Wednesday. Our ambassadors have seen them already, and it's safe to say you'll love them. We're breaking out the embroidery machine again after giving it some time off, to create the EQ Edit, and we are so excited to see what you think about our new designs. We've been reinvesting capital into the business and are seeing the results!
An accomplishment we recently achieved was hitting 10,000 followers on Instagram. It felt great to see the 9,999 turn into 10k, and we can't believe how far we've come! Nothing we do would be possible without all of our amazing customers and supporters.
That's it for what we've been up to at CL this month. We're always happy to answer any questions you may have, so drop a comment or shoot us a DM! In July's edition of CL Behind the Scenes, we'll talk about the Ottawa Summer Tournaments, the Eq Edit, upcoming events and more!